Too Many Interesting Things Are Happening to Ethan Fairmont by Nick Brooks

Author:Nick Brooks
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Union Square Kids

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We filled Fatima in on all the details about Cheese we could think of as we walked. The summer had been such a blur that some things were fuzzy. But we told her about the process of learning how the Pinball ship worked and how we communicated with Cheese. We told her about how Cheese had six eyes and a silver arm. I kept expecting Fatima to be shocked or disbelieving, but she just listened to everything with the same studious face.

By the time we got to my room, I felt like she knew everything there was to know about Cheese and the light-flowers.

“Hold on,” I said as we got to the top of the stairs. I left Fatima and Juan Carlos and Kareem outside the door and slipped in by myself first. I rushed around, cleaning things up, stuffing them in the closet and behind Nugget’s cage. It wasn’t that I cared what Fatima thought, but I bet her laboratory where she got her patents or whatever was a lot more organized than my room.

“Okay,” I said, swinging the door open.

We all sat on the floor with the light-flower glowing at the center. Nugget squeaked softly in his cage, but I ignored him for now.

“It does seem to be glowing just fine,” she said. “I don’t know how long the battery life is for these things, but you’d think it would be dim and wilted if it was running out. So that can’t be the issue.”

“It has to be something Cheese thought of already,” Kareem said. “Cheese wouldn’t have left you with a busted device.”

“Maybe Cheese knew it was broken and wanted you to fix it,” Juan Carlos suggested. “Maybe Cheese is going to swing back around and pick it up.”

My chest squeezed at the idea of seeing my friend again. Maybe so.

“I just don’t know,” I said, shaking my head.

My phone beeped and I reached for it, let my face ID unlock it, and then read the text from my mom.

Mom: Did you make it back okay?

I texted her back quickly.

Me: Yep, I’m home.

“Wait a minute,” Fatima said. “What did you just do?”

“I texted my mom,” I said slowly.

“No, when you picked up your phone,” she said.

“I … looked at it? I unlocked it.”

“Face ID,” she said.

“Yeah. I set it up the night I got it.”

“What if the flower phone has something like that?” she said, looking excited. “Like a passcode?”

“I mean, if it’s face ID, I’ve looked at it a thousand times,” I said doubtfully. “From a thousand different angles.”

“But what if it’s not face ID,” Juan Carlos said. “What if there’s another way to unlock it? You know, some people use fingerprint unlock for their phones.”

We all leaned in, examining every inch of the flower phone again, and I tried placing my finger on a variety of spots, waiting for something to beep or glow or something. Anything. But there was nothing.

I felt disappointment lurking, but Fatima looked more excited.

“I think we’re onto something,” she said.

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